94
Taein, who looked back and forth between the man’s hands and face, frowned as if displeased. How could he believe that? He remembered leaving Eundo at the church and coming down the mountain path… He remembered seeing Jang Ihwan at the bus stop. He even remembered being forced into the car, but everything after that was still blurry. Only things like what he felt momentarily, where he hid, kept coming to mind.
In front of him, he could see a man repeatedly hitting his palm with his fist, saying “You know this, right?”
It didn’t particularly have any mocking meaning, it just seemed like he was trying to make him understand properly.
Taein, who averted his eyes downward and narrowed his brow, still expressed dissatisfaction with the man who wouldn’t stop.
“Stop it, you fu…”
He couldn’t quite attach the “ck” and just scrunched up his face greatly.
“We already did it, so what should I stop…?”
Muttering such words to himself and turning his head away, his reddened neck was visible. Seeing how he kept babbling nonsense even while being strangled, the man must be no ordinary person either. Well, the Dog Alley gangsters would crawl around begging just at the sight of the man. There must be reasons for everything. Taein was having such thoughts while looking at the man’s neck. Even if he had a speck of apologetic feelings, they were being erased by the second.
“Ah. This too, straight to the point.”
The man suddenly turned his head sharply, so their eyes met.
“If you understood properly. You’d also know why you need to take this.”
Then he rummaged through his back pants pocket and showed something.
A small, flat medicine box. Words like “male omega,” “contraceptive,” “safe” caught his eye.
“Just in case. You have your own path to go, and I have mine to rush to.”
“……”
Until now he had wondered if he really had slept with the man, but seeing the medicine changed his mind. The man had no reason to lie while even bringing props like this. They didn’t know each other well, and the man especially seemed to have no time. Would such a person really pull this kind of stunt just to tease him? Taein belatedly recalled the man’s nonsensical words. He tried to deduce only the important parts in his head.
That bastard, Jang Ihwan had drugged him.
That he had slept with the man anyway.
“Won’t you take it?”
“……”
The man kept shaking the contraceptive pill. Taein reluctantly raised his hand and took it, hiding it behind his back. He put both arms behind him as if standing at attention.
“You need to take it.”
“I’ll handle it myself.”
Though he spoke stiffly like a soldier, his face was rapidly turning red. Earlier his face was red from anger, but now his complexion was changing from shame. Taein clenched his fist hard enough to crush the medicine. His emotions were showing in his actions too. When a crunching sound was heard, Donghwan’s eyes went downward.
“Why are you crumpling it?”
“…Ah. Yes.”
Taein, who nodded while avoiding eye contact, turned his body completely to the side.
It didn’t seem like there would be anything good from facing the man anymore. He just planned to wrap things up and leave, then trace his memories alone. Standing here thinking like this, nothing was entering his head anyway. Even when he tried to carefully retrace from the bus stop, the fact that he had sex with the man was so powerful that he couldn’t concentrate. Taein, who trudged toward the bedroom, pressed his lips tightly together.
He had come up to the bedroom area as if it were his own house because he wanted to get dressed and leave quickly.
Never mind clothes, he didn’t even know where his underwear was.
The towel wrapped around his lower body and the man’s shirt he had put on as if tearing it were all of his current outfit.
Because he had buttoned it up in excitement, he hadn’t even put the shirt on properly. The fabric was wrinkled so his stomach and chest were visible. Taein looked down at it and unbuttoned it one by one.
He had put on clothes hastily because of Jang Ihwan. Knowing what that bastard had done to him, he had grabbed any shirt in sight and ended up like this. But the one who opened the door and appeared was completely unexpected.
That unexpected person, Yoon Donghwan, needed to have the shirt taken off quickly. Cursing that a cheap-looking bastard wearing such things was pointless, he had essentially directed that at him. The buttons came undone quickly. Taein, who removed the shirt from his body like taking off an outer garment, neatly folded it and placed it on the bed.
During that time, the man seemed to be opening the window. Soon, having finished his business, he could be seen turning in this direction.
“What.”
“Ah.”
The man stopped walking and moved his eyes up and down. He seemed to find it strange that he had suddenly exposed his upper body. Taein immediately attached an excuse.
“I wore your clothes without knowing. I was confused for a moment.”
“No…”
Yoon Donghwan, who stepped on one stair and started with “No…” also stepped on the remaining stairs. Only a bed and nightstand were placed in the bedroom area. The curtains in front of the bed were tightly drawn to the side as if never used, and even the fluffy blankets only gave off a dry atmosphere. Yoon Donghwan, who stood tall among them, slowly closed and opened his eyes while looking at Taein.
“Did you forget we agreed to drop formalities?”
“……”
This was more confusing than when he had just woken up. He couldn’t remember when he had started using formal speech with the man, or whether what he had just said was formal speech. Taein, whose face and neck turned red, said “Yes, I’ll drop it” and bowed his head. Donghwan watched that from the front, then forced a smile and tilted his head back. His expression said what kind of behavior is this.
“I, I’ll be going.”
“…Like that?”
Rather than picking a fight over the inconsistent formal speech, Donghwan first restrained Taein who was trying to go outside with his upper body exposed. As he had felt before, he seemed like a man who lived without thinking at all about whether he was an omega or what. Because he had unavoidably sucked his chest yesterday, the man’s nipples were still swollen and taut. The color was also on the red side. Donghwan, who narrowed both eyes, properly blocked Taein who was trying to leave.
“Where are you going like this? Customer. Don’t you think?”
Asking such a thing while lowering his head, Taein made eye contact with Donghwan at close distance.
Taein was the first to avert his eyes. As he did so, perhaps having glanced at his own chest, he tried to cover his body by bringing his arms together. Donghwan just watched that with incredulous eyes from the front. After a few seconds passed like that, Taein raised his head and made a request to Donghwan.
“Then if you could lend me a shirt and pants… I’ll, I’ll give them to you.”
Talking incoherently with a red face, he seemed to have no sense at all.
Donghwan kept looking at Taein with a question mark on his face before turning his eyes to the shirt folded on the bed.
“Sure. Do that. What will you take to get home?”
As if he had decided the answer beforehand, Donghwan turned around to look for car keys. But the moment he showed an opening, Taein rushed forward and quickly stood against the door. Rummaging through the corridor wardrobe and taking out any pants to wear also happened in just a few seconds. Donghwan grabbed and released the car keys. How embarrassing. He thought he had experience, but was he a virgin acting like that? Having such thoughts blankly, he just watched Taein open the door. He added one comment.
“You’ll take the medicine before you go?”
“Ah, yeah.”
The door that had been half-opened closed smoothly. Taein put the medicine in his mouth without water in front of the door. What kind of bastard is that? Frowning greatly and trying to say something to Taein, but by then Taein had already left the hotel room. Crunching the medicine while leaving the room, he didn’t seem like an ordinary guy.
Donghwan’s eyes remained on the closed door for a while.
“Huff, uh… huff.”
Taein ran immediately after leaving the room. The elevator didn’t come so he took the stairs from the 10th floor height, and didn’t slow down even after stepping on the sidewalk. Running like that, he took a bus at the stop. He had several 10,000 won bills in his pocket so he could take something. Since the money wasn’t his, he chose the bus over a taxi.
How long would it take to get to the outskirts village of Juhang? When he had come to play around here with Eundo, it seemed to take about 40 minutes.
“…Haah.”
Taein, who kept catching his breath, pressed his head completely against the car window.
It was spring, but it wasn’t that warm a day.
Just a shirt and pants.
Especially the pants – he didn’t even know what he had put on when he came out, but looking now he was wearing pajamas. Embarrassing to the very end. Still, after finishing checking his pants, Taein dropped his head with a thud. His body had no strength from how much he had suffered yesterday and today.
Swaying his body to match the bus like that, he could see the sea stretched out to the side. The desolate scenery was the same as always.
Taein got off the bus and looked around.
Getting off blatantly at the bus stop near his house would draw bothersome stares from people around. If, just if something had happened with Jang Ihwan yesterday, JAM’s gangsters would be desperately searching for him. They would be camping out at the bus stop too. Worried about that, he got off at a stop quite far away and walked while surveying around his house like looking at someone else’s home.
Though not clearly visible, it didn’t seem like big guys were lurking around.
He planned to just go get his bankbook from home first.
That was the only thing he had to bring.
The windows would all be broken and the house would be a mess. With the money Yoon Donghwan said he had partially deposited, he planned to pay compensation and deposit a few pennies to Jang Ihwan to avoid the situation somewhat. If he deposited a few pennies, that bastard would be quiet for a while.
While thinking that, he had the studio apartment building right in front of him. The window glass was broken making the street a mess, but fortunately someone seemed to have swept it to the side. Taein looked up at room 301 where the window had fallen out before entering the building.
Quickly climbing two stairs at a time and reaching in front of his house, Taein looked with empty eyes at the tattered door without a door lock.
He had set the password while teaching Eundo the number positions.
If it could be broken this easily…
Entering the house with bitter feelings, he saw the literally devastated interior.
The furniture that had been there was toppled forward, and the dishes were mercilessly broken and rolling on the floor. It hurt his heart to see Eundo’s small shoes scattered carelessly. Taein gathered the small sneakers with his hands and stepped on the linoleum floor.
Holding an armful of sneakers and flipping over the linoleum in the corner, a moldy floor was revealed.
“…Fuck…”
Not only the bankbook that should have been there, but also the ID and emergency money he had hidden just in case were nowhere to be seen.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
